Anavar Cutting Cycle - First Time

v8hemi

New member
Sorry for the double post... I think I originally posted in the wrong forum but couldn't delete the thread.

So just a short summary about me... Lifting for over 5 years consistently. I go through the typical winter bulk and summer cut cycles every year so this isn't my first rodeo. I put on 25 lbs during this years bulk and I've finally decided I needed a little boost for the summer cut. My goal in mind was to cut and retain as much LBM as possible (hello Anavar!). I've been on 40mg/day for 2 weeks now and I find that I'm actually gaining weight and/or fluctuating.

My diet which originally was working prior to starting my cycle was 250 calorie deficit on lift days and 550 on off days which seemed to be the sweet spot for breaking PRs and maintaining a steady 1 lb/week weight drop. I'm considering going in at a 650 calorie deficit for the full 7 days now, as harsh as it sounds. With all my research I know that Anavar does a pretty good job of retaining lean mass and water retention (I've been supplementing with creatine) so I'm curious to know if this is normal? Should I be measuring inches instead of lbs or should I still expect to see weight loss?

Thanks!
 
Sorry for the double post... I think I originally posted in the wrong forum but couldn't delete the thread.

So just a short summary about me... Lifting for over 5 years consistently. I go through the typical winter bulk and summer cut cycles every year so this isn't my first rodeo. I put on 25 lbs during this years bulk and I've finally decided I needed a little boost for the summer cut. My goal in mind was to cut and retain as much LBM as possible (hello Anavar!). I've been on 40mg/day for 2 weeks now and I find that I'm actually gaining weight and/or fluctuating.

My diet which originally was working prior to starting my cycle was 250 calorie deficit on lift days and 550 on off days which seemed to be the sweet spot for breaking PRs and maintaining a steady 1 lb/week weight drop. I'm considering going in at a 650 calorie deficit for the full 7 days now, as harsh as it sounds. With all my research I know that Anavar does a pretty good job of retaining lean mass and water retention (I've been supplementing with creatine) so I'm curious to know if this is normal? Should I be measuring inches instead of lbs or should I still expect to see weight loss?

Thanks!

40mg/day is wayyyyyy too much anavar for a woman. Cut it back to like 5mg/day.
 
I'm a male... and (thank you Milton!) to answer the question about stats: 5'8 @ 175 lbs / 27 years old.

I assumed you are female because you are only running Anavar. Males need to run it with testosterone. You have made yourself Hypogonadal. Pretty dumb idea to do that.
 
I assumed you are female because you are only running Anavar. Males need to run it with testosterone. You have made yourself Hypogonadal. Pretty dumb idea to do that.

I've read mixed opinions about this and know quite a few to run var only cycles with success. While I value your input, I think you can tell I've already made my decision :P

Not to mention my dosage is relatively low compared to what others run at.
 
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I'm a male... and (thank you Milton!) to answer the question about stats: 5'8 @ 175 lbs / 27 years old.


I never understood why people run extra AAS on the side when cutting. I think your first choice should be to cut on 500mg+ of test to remain LBM. U can have a decent size deficit losing 1.5-2lbs PW and save ur muscle. Just make sure your volume is low in training, high intensity and keep ur carbs up while cutting.

Second choice would be to stack test with some tren. It you do it right (I haven't figured it out myself), but I'd assume a smallER deficit while on tren would lean to LBM gains while burning BF at the same time.

PS: Anavar is a poor choice of oral for males too. Why would u ever mess with it when things are out there as strong as dbol/anadrol/M1T ect...


PS2: You do not run oral only cycles, there is a good reason Megatron stated above. Your depriving yourself of your main male hormone and running a steroid weak enough for woman to use and still remain quite feminine, just logically think about it.
 
I've read mixed opinions about this and know quite a few to run var only cycles with success. While I value your input, I think you can tell I've already made my decision :P

Not to mention my dosage is relatively low compared to what others run at.

Good luck. I would encourage you to get blood work and see what your TT, E2, LH and FSH are sitting at while doing Anavar-only. Proof is in the pudding. Compare the results to your Natty baseline levels (which I hope you ran).
 
I've read mixed opinions about this and know quite a few to run var only cycles with success. While I value your input, I think you can tell I've already made my decision :P

Not to mention my dosage is relatively low compared to what others run at.

You can do something, or you can do something right. I don't think chemically castrating yourself is the right way to go about things. I'm pretty sure that I could find a post online somewhere stating that taking birth control pills will give gains too - doesn't make it legitimate advice though.

Get the blood test from Tron's signature, maybe that will help you understand why you have received the advice that you have. :)
 
Well I appreciate all the feedback. Makes it a little more personal considering I've started my own thread instead of just reading others. I'm still going to double back with some friends for their opinions but if I were to heed the advice of you guys, if I were to stop now (2 weeks in) is the damage already done? Should I start with PCT? You make it seem like this is apocalyptic damage to my test where there's no point of return :(
 
Well I appreciate all the feedback. Makes it a little more personal considering I've started my own thread instead of just reading others. I'm still going to double back with some friends for their opinions but if I were to heed the advice of you guys, if I were to stop now (2 weeks in) is the damage already done? Should I start with PCT? You make it seem like this is apocalyptic damage to my test where there's no point of return :(

Here's the problem; most guys we know out in the gym or socially don't get blood work done - ever. They go by how they feel, and many times will keep things to themselves when problems occur. It's mostly male pride, but who wants to tell their buds their dick isn't working right?

There is ABSOLUTELY NO judgement going on here, just folks that want to help you understand where you went wrong due to poor advice. So please, don't take it as a personal attack, we just like educating the community as it helps everyone in the long run when there are less issues for the media/medical community to feed upon. ;)

I personally would either pick up testosterone propionate (fastest ester) and finish things the right way, or cut the var for now and PCT. You can save it for later if you're still interested in what AAS can provide at a later date.

Are your testes going to shrivel up and stop making testosterone permanently? Probably not. However, the risk of permanent shut down is quite real, and inevitable the more times AAS is used,or the longer one is suppressed.

Sadly, nobody can tell you the odds, or if you have even caused any permanent damage at this point as we're all different. You may have a cast-iron pituitary gland, that shrugs things like temporary shut down off as if it were nothing, or you may have an issue recovering from just two weeks on a low dose of 'var.

Please keep us posted on how things go. Unbiased advice can always be found here for those wanting it. :)
 
Here's the problem; most guys we know out in the gym or socially don't get blood work done - ever. They go by how they feel, and many times will keep things to themselves when problems occur. It's mostly male pride, but who wants to tell their buds their dick isn't working right?

There is ABSOLUTELY NO judgement going on here, just folks that want to help you understand where you went wrong due to poor advice. So please, don't take it as a personal attack, we just like educating the community as it helps everyone in the long run when there are less issues for the media/medical community to feed upon. ;)

I personally would either pick up testosterone propionate (fastest ester) and finish things the right way, or cut the var for now and PCT. You can save it for later if you're still interested in what AAS can provide at a later date.

Are your testes going to shrivel up and stop making testosterone permanently? Probably not. However, the risk of permanent shut down is quite real, and inevitable the more times AAS is used,or the longer one is suppressed.

Sadly, nobody can tell you the odds, or if you have even caused any permanent damage at this point as we're all different. You may have a cast-iron pituitary gland, that shrugs things like temporary shut down off as if it were nothing, or you may have an issue recovering from just two weeks on a low dose of 'var.

Please keep us posted on how things go. Unbiased advice can always be found here for those wanting it. :)

I certainly don't take it as a personal attack at all! Again I appreciate all the feedback given thus far. I only meant that it feels more personal considering that I've started my own thread opposed to looking from the outside in and reading all the mixed opinions posted by others. All of the replies here have made me second guess myself more than anything else I've read or heard so they certainly hold more value.
 
I certainly don't take it as a personal attack at all! Again I appreciate all the feedback given thus far. I only meant that it feels more personal considering that I've started my own thread opposed to looking from the outside in and reading all the mixed opinions posted by others. All of the replies here have made me second guess myself more than anything else I've read or heard so they certainly hold more value.

Don't rely on opinions. Get facts about how the HPTA works. And get blood work so you can see what is actually taking place in your body.
 
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I'm still hoping someone could answer my original question about the weight loss if I continue to travel this path correctly supplemented with test.

As most know, getting test won't happen overnight so I'm guessing I'd have to start PCT for the time being.
 
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I'm still hoping someone could answer my original question about the weight loss if I continue to travel this path correctly supplemented with test.

As most know, getting test won't happen overnight so I'm guessing I'd have to start PCT for the time being.

As far as whether or not you should be measuring progress by the inch, or pound?

Measurements will always be the better metric between the two, although a bod pod or DEXA scan would be best. Running a small deficit in an anabolic state will provide steady results, albeit slower than with a greater deficit. (duh lol)

If you're gaining weight right now, it could easily be from a few different causes; the first that comes to mind would be the creatine causing water weight gain, another potentially being a rise in cortisol as your testosterone production declines and your body is put under stress.

I would (if it were me) PCT out and spend some time reading the stickies here. They are full of fantastic FACT BASED information that will help set you up for not only a better experience in the future, but a far more successful one at that. :)
 
As far as whether or not you should be measuring progress by the inch, or pound?

Measurements will always be the better metric between the two, although a bod pod or DEXA scan would be best. Running a small deficit in an anabolic state will provide steady results, albeit slower than with a greater deficit. (duh lol)

If you're gaining weight right now, it could easily be from a few different causes; the first that comes to mind would be the creatine causing water weight gain, another potentially being a rise in cortisol as your testosterone production declines and your body is put under stress.

I would (if it were me) PCT out and spend some time reading the stickies here. They are full of fantastic FACT BASED information that will help set you up for not only a better experience in the future, but a far more successful one at that. :)

I do intend to PCT out as recommended but out of curiosity... I failed to mention that I been using creatine long before my cycle, before I even started cutting actually so my body should have reached its maximum saturation already. Does anavar increase water retention that much? I'm not gaining weight per say but it's fluctuating between 1-3 lbs on and off and haven't had this problem since starting my cycle. As if anavar is actually fighting my cutting progress (since now I'm not dropping weight at all) which may lead to your cortisol idea.
 
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I do intend to PCT out as recommended but out of curiosity... I failed to mention that I been using creatine long before my cycle, before I even started cutting actually so my body should have reached its maximum saturation already. Does anavar increase water retention that much? I'm not gaining weight per say but it's fluctuating between 1-3 lbs on and off and haven't had this problem since starting my cycle. As if anavar is actually fighting my cutting progress (since now I'm not dropping weight at all) which may lead to your cortisol idea.

Steroids allow your body to hold more glycogen. Each gram of glycogen has three grams of water attached to it.
 
Steroids allow your body to hold more glycogen. Each gram of glycogen has three grams of water attached to it.
I guess what I'm reading here is that I should probably cut creatine from my diet when continuing this cycle since the additional water retention is going to be counterproductive to my cutting goals?

Kind of sounds like you're saying the water retention from anavar plus creatine may be causing my weight fluctuations regardless of how long my body has saturated it prior. Or am I reading this entirely wrong and you're telling me that this would eventually level out considering it was only two weeks?
 
I guess what I'm reading here is that I should probably cut creatine from my diet when continuing this cycle since the additional water retention is going to be counterproductive to my cutting goals?

Kind of sounds like you're saying the water retention from anavar plus creatine may be causing my weight fluctuations regardless of how long my body has saturated it prior. Or am I reading this entirely wrong and you're telling me that this would eventually level out considering it was only two weeks?

Glycogen is a good thing unless you are trying to deplete it to go into a ketogenic state or getnon a stage for a bodybuilding show. More glycogen = more strength = more gains. Glycogen levels will return to normal once your cycle ends assuming diet remains constant.
 
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